A baby girl who died within days of being born in Bristol could have lived if her birth by Caesarean section was carried out sooner, an inquest heard.

Natasha Knowles was just four days old when she died at Southmead Hospital on February 11, 2005.

When she was born on February 7 she had no heartbeat and was not breathing.

Doctors put a tube into her airway to help her breathe and gave her heart massage, and after 35 minutes she was breathing and had a heartbeat.

But the stress on her tiny body left her in a coma.

A lack of oxygen to her brain severely damaged it, and she was also left with dramatic heart, kidney and liver problems.

At 9.30pm on February 11, after consultation with doctors, Natasha's parents Mark and Snezana Knowles, from Chipping Sodbury, took the agonising decision to turn her life support machine off.

Flax Bourton Coroners' Court heard Natasha died as a result of severe hypoxic brain damage, caused by lack of oxygen.

But there were also serious concerns about the management of Natasha's birth.

A decision to carry out a Caesarean section was made at 11am. But it was not performed until three-and-a-half hours afterwards.

In a statement read out in court, Philip Savage, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Southmead Hospital involved with her care, said: "The Caesarean section should have been carried out very soon after the decision to do it. The decision was made at 11am, and should have been carried out by noon, 12.30pm at the latest."

In response to a letter from Mr and Mrs Knowles, he said: "For a number of reasons there was an unacceptable delay in the Caesarean section. Delivery should have occurred in the latter part of the morning, and not deferred into the afternoon."

Yesterday's inquest heard that the Caesarean section was not re-categorised from "urgent" to "emergency" by doctors, and was therefore not regarded as being immediately threatening to either the mother or baby.

Sharon McKenna, a midwife and clinical risk manager for maternity at Southmead Hospital, said there had been a number of errors leading up to Natasha's birth.

She said there was a failure to recognise and act upon abnormalities found in a scan of Natasha's heart; a lack of clarity in the chain of command, as to which obstetrician was in charge of Mrs Knowles' care; inappropriate breaks in foetal monitoring; failure to adequately document scan descriptions; a failure to co-ordinate care within the midwifery team; and a failure to appreciate the significance of the whole clinical procedure.

The parents had a letter from North Bristol NHS Trust apologising for not delivering Natasha sooner. It has also carried out an internal investigation.

The inquest was then adjourned so that Doctor Savage could be called to give evidence in person.